Thursday, January 8, 2015

Each year I pick a family name that will be my main research topic for the year. Last year (2014) was the year of the Virgie, they are a small group and it gave me lots of time to work into my on going family research. 2013, was the Watson family of Carleton Co, New Brunswick, one of my husbands lines. Someday I will find who Peter Watson, Loyalist, belongs to!! 2012 was the descendants of Edmund Price and Jane Webb, unlike the rest, this family is huge. Even after a year, with help from other researchers on the Hovey group, I still have 4 of the 14 children to finish research on. In 2011 I chose the Jonah family of New Brunswick.

This year it will be The Gunning family of Albert Co, New Brunswick. The Gunnings are also a fairly small group compared to a lot of the families I research. My goal is to trace every line and get them as close to present as I can. Not always easy but so worth it.

James Gunning, Sr and his wife Mary Johnston (surname is still being proven) came from Europe in the early 1800's to Albert County. They arrived with four children, John (most likely), James Jr, Mary Ann and Elizabeth. There were probably more children. There is question to where they were from, England, Ireland or Scotland. With the research I have done, most likely they are Irish by way of England.

I descend from James Gunning, Jr and his wife Margaret Jonah. Their son William Lovell Gunning and his wife Mary Jane Virgie died young leaving my GG grandmother Annie Laura Gunning and her brother John "Seymour" Gunning orphaned by 1875 at age 8 and 4 receptively. Seymour was raised by his uncle James Hazen Gunning. The family lived in Coverdale and what was known as Gunningsville. As for Annie, we have no idea who she went to after her parents death. She is not in the 1880 census with any of her family. We know she was a housekeeper and worked for several families in Albert County. In the end she ended up marrying Rufus Leaman, the son of a family she worked for. This seems to be a running theme in my ancestry as my paternal great grandmother, Annie Flynn, did the same thing.

Through DNA testing I have two matches to people who descend from the Gunnings, if you have a connection, have more information or have had a atDNA testing and want to compare information feel free to contact me.